Benjamin "Mr Miyagi" Lee

Month: April 2004

I had a coupla conversations lately relating to depression. I can’t write about depression properly. If I could form coherent thoughts about it, I wouldn’t be doing it justice. To describe it would be too twee. The conversations I had with friends dealt with reactive depression, that is, the conversation revolved around the situational circumstances (as opposed to say, biological) that directly caused their depressive states. Exempli gratia: “I don’t know if I should hang on or let him go” I don’t know either. The person that cares has left the room. Go outside, make a left, and then a right, then straight on to the median strip and play in traffic. I’m harsh because I know what I’d do given the same thing to face. Bleeding obvious. If, for example, the situation were something I haven’t faced, or have faced but crumpled in the face of it, my reaction might be something different. E.g.: “I don’t know if anyone would accept me for this “thing” that I have”. Stumped. Stone motherless silent. Make lame …

After a particularly uneventful day doing adminstrative tasks (phone calls, web updates et cete-fucking-ra), me and the boys went and tortured ourselves in the gym. It was a particularly long workout, which made us real hungry, so we decided to ‘grab a bite’ before going home. Grab a bite we did, at this restaurant on Jalan Pisang, near the Arab quarter, near Arab Street (duh), called Hajah Maimunah Restaurant & Catering. Hajah Maimunah’s is one of those Nasi Padang type restaurants, where you order rice per person, then pick the dishes which you will eat to your death. It definitely isn’t fine dining, and Hajah Maimunah herself wasn’t there (she probably just supervises the cooking), but I’m quite she wouldn’t have disapproved our ‘whacking’ the food the way we did, even if she’s the pious woman her title suggests. While we would’ve liked to have tasted every dish on offer, we settled for beef rendang (probably better at lunch, so you don’t get the bottom of the pot hard bits), panggang chicken in sweet gravy …